Isn’t it interesting how people used to translate their names when they traveled, but this is less often done now? So if you were Ivan from Bulgaria and you traveled through Western Europe, you would not say in France ‘Je m’appelle Ivan’, nor in England ‘My name is Ivan’; rather, you would become ‘Jean’, ‘John’, ‘Juan’, ‘João’, etc. depending on what country you were in.

You’ll notice this for example with King Francis I of France, Joan of Arc, or Prince Henry the Navigator. Why don’t we say King François of France, Jean of Arc, or Prince Henrique the Navigator, using their born-given names? Today we wouldn’t call the previous king of Spain ‘King John Charles I’; we always call him ‘King Juan Carlos I’.

Naming oneself — and anyone else for that matter — has never been a straightforward task. And the conventions surrounding it have morphed and changed over the years.

Trying to trace when and why this shift happened is a bit tricky. It seems to have begun in around the middle of the 19th century, based on for example the way we stopped translating (in English, mind you) the names of the monarchs of Spain, starting with Amadeo I of Spain, who reigned from 1870–1873. He *was* sometimes called Amadeus I of Spain, but most sources seem to call him Amadeo. On the other hand, his predecessor was Isabella II of Spain — in Spanish, Isabel II.

With French monarchs, we only have one such example of a lack of translation — King Louis Philippe I (1830–1838). His predecessor Henry V is sometimes referred to as Henri in English texts, but Louis Philippe is hardly ever called Louis Philip.

Why did this happen? I quite like the explanation that this shows a decrease in ethnocentrism and a rise in metropolitanism, according to for example the top answer in this StackExchange question about the topic: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/142975/when-did-we-stop-translating-proper-names

We’re becoming more aware of other people’s cultures. Therefore, we are less likely to translate foreigners’ names…or our own when immigrating to a new country. For me, this is a good sign!

That being said, if it’s your own name, it’s obviously up to you. I personally think your name is awesome and you should keep it. Hawk Eagle Hawkson is pretty epic!

    Jackson Holiday Wheeler

    Written by

    Developer, Linguist, Writer. Advocate for Conscious Entrepreneurship.